Books: The Places In Between/The Bookseller of Kabul.

For the dozens of visitors to this new blog, may I please make a recommendation: read The Places In Between, by Rory Stewart. Or, The Bookseller of Kabul, by Asne Seierstad. But maybe not both. I just finished the second, and I'm feeling depressed by the state of things - at least according to two authors' personal accounts - in Afghanistan. Oren asked me today how the ending of The Bookseller was - without thinking, I answered "Just as depressing as the beginning and the middle."

This is not to say that either is not a good book; I give The Places Between a nice, solid 9 of 13 ampersands. Tough reading but well told. I liked The Bookseller a little less (8 of 13) but this might only have been because I was getting tired of being so depressed by an entire culture, and the buildup of discouragement was getting heavier.

The first is by a Scottish author who recounts the story of his walk across Afghanistan a few years ago. He meets only men, is made to walk with soldiers for half his trip, witnesses countless discussions of who has killed whom over the years, and gets shot at a few times. The second was written by a Norwegian woman who spent a year living with a man and his extended family in Kabul; a smaller view, for sure, but one that includes family structure and is a fascinating, if sad, window onto the treatment of women in post-Taliban Afghan culture. Despite the sound of it, I really recommend both books.


Julie's Official Book Score (the reliance and worth of which is to be determined after reading, or not, several of the books she has read):
The Places in Between: & & & & & & & & & & & & &
The Bookseller of Kabul: & & & & & & & & & & & & &